Update & advice needed

[Wolfman]

Hi everyone. Just an update and where I am now. I'll give you an idea as from the start. I'll comment and provide copies of the letters I sent below. Here goes.

I made my request on 17 April for £2.459.00. I got the usual fob off letter on 20 April about how they were giving me 4 weeks. I know I didn't need to reply to this, but I couldn't help sending the below letter in reply. I don't know if I should write the name of my contact at Abbey, so I've played safe and left it out.

 

Dear .......

Thank you for your letter dated 20 April 2007, in reference to my own letter / request, dated 17 April 2007. I appreciate your acknowledgement of receipt.

In reference to your letter I would like to make the following point.

• You have included with your letter a complaints procedure and you also state that you will write to us in four weeks to let us know what is happening. This is not acceptable. As you are aware from our letter / request dated 17 April 2007, we gave you 14 days, from that date, to refund us the money requested, which in total is £2,459.00 and remove any default notices. This still stands. If we do not receive a satisfactory response within the time given then we will begin a claim against you, plus interest and other costs imposed, as stated in our previous letter.

Yours sincerely.....;Wolfman

I then heard nothing. They basically didn't reply. So on the 1st May I sent them the seven day warning, which is as follows:

Dear Mr ...........

On the 17th April 2007 we forwarded you our demand for the refund of £2,459.00 and for you to remove any default notices that have been placed against us. The figure of £2,459.00, as you are aware, is the overall total for the Bank Charges taken from our account over the past six years up to the date of 17 April. As you are also aware, and as we pointed out in our letter dated 17 April, ‘Under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999’ charges must reflect administration costs and cannot be punitive. Again, as pointed out in that letter, we believe that those bank charges taken from our account during that period were unlawful as they do not reflect the true costs.

On the 21 April we forwarded you another letter, in response to a letter dated 20 April sent to us by yourself. In regard to your letter, we find it mystifying as to why you consider our case a ‘Complaint’ which you also feel needs investigating. The plain and simply fact is that the charges taken from our account ARE unfair and punitive and so any so-called investigation, as far as we are concerned is simply delaying tactics used by Abbey. In our response of the 21 April to your letter we pointed out that our demand still stood and that what your letter indicated was unsatisfactory. We also stated in that letter that we still gave you 14 days, from the original demand of 17 April date, to refund us the money requested and remove any default notices against us.

To date we have not received a satisfactory response from you and so as a result of this we intend to claim the above full amount, now plus interest and court fees, through the County Court. We will give you another 7 days from the date of this letter; otherwise we will activate all paperwork and commence court proceedings.

We do not believe that we have been treated well and as valued customers by Abbey, because of the excessive charges taken from us and due to the lack of positive response and rude silence from Abbey.

We look forward to your response.

Yours sincerely ....Wolfman

Again nothing. No letter or anything. So on the 3rd May, even though I didn't need to, I decided to send them another final letter before I went through the door of the court. The letter is as follows:

Dear .......

Due to the lack of correspondence from yourself and Abbey in general and your refusal to come to a satisfactory conclusion regarding our request for the refund £2,459.00 and for you to remove any default notices against us, we have no other option but to take this matter to the County Court. We are now in the process of conducting that line of action.

We are aware of the ‘standard letter’ that was sent to us dated 20 April 2007, as we are also aware of the fact that in that letter you state that you will write to us in four weeks from the date of that letter. We would like to point out that as far as we are concerned Abbey is not in a position to dictate how long it will be for them to reply to our request. It is because it is ‘our’ request that we feel that we are the party that can dictate time scales, as you dictate them when Abbey is in a position to request money from its customers.

As you are aware ‘Under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999’ charges must reflect administration costs and cannot be punitive. Yet again, as pointed out in my previous letters, we believe that those bank charges taken from our account were unlawful as they do not reflect the true costs.

As also pointed out in our letter of the 1 May 2007, due to your lack of positive assistance in this matter we now intend to pursue the above amount as well as other Administration fees, interest and added Court Costs.

Just for the record, we have tried calling your enquiries line on many occasions to speak to someone so to hopefully settle this claim, but it seems that this line of enquiry is non-existent. The line is constantly unobtainable throughout the day and after 5pm on the dot the lines close down altogether; whereas all the other lines operated by Abbey, for other services, are open all evening. Very convenient for Abbey but not for customers who finish work after 5pm.

We look forward to seeing you in Court

Yours sincerely....Wolfman

So you see I have strayed off a little from the set way, I hope this doesn't mean that I've fouled up? Anyway I couldn't resist adding in a bit of sarcastic commentary.

Just a bit of helpful advice. I hope again it is the right advice. When I looked through the court literature I noticed that it stated, in so many words, that the judges like to see that the persons claiming have tried to settle the dispute out of court. That they've made every effort. I feel that by writing the off the line letters might have helped my case and I also made many calls and have logged them. I have them recorded on my phone bills and mobile. As you can see from my final letter, I tried contacting them by phone, but very convieniantly for Abbey the line was constantly engaged and then, as stated, after 5 on the dot, the lines shut down. Just a thought.

What I would like to know is this. My partner originally typed out the request for the money on 17 April. I then took over. Like a ..... I didn't notice that she'd also included an overdraft fee of £7.91 which then took the money due up to £2.466.91. I have been afterwards demanding the £2.459.00, not realising the 7.91. I only noticed the other day. Will this make dificaulties for me? I hope not.

 

Also, I'm a bit stuck on the interest bit. I've not completely finished the N1 and hope to get it off either tomorrow or the next day. Abbey are lucky, I've given them a little longer!!!

Basically what can I claim? How much? From when? Is it from six years ago or from the day I first made the claim, 17 April? I know of the 8%, but what is all this daily interest about? Please help????

Thanks all. I'll keep you posted.

Best regards

Wolfman

[Lula]

Wolfman, You can claim for as long as you have statements, its a simple as that, do a site search on "Statute of Limitations" and the fact that it does not apply in these cases on at least 2 counts. Did you not download a spreadsheet with interest? it does all the calculations for you, i have a superb spreadsheet that will calculate any interest rate that you tell it to, if you pm me your email address I will forward it on, it is fairly self explanatory but if you get stuck then there will be someone around to help you.

 

Hope this helps

[mochamoo]

Nice to see you back wolfman.

 

Good Luck

[Wolfman]

Thanks Lula and Mochamoo. I am now back with a vengence, a vengence that will bring victory against Abbey. I'm filling in N1 at moment and am going to get it in on Monday. I know I'm basically giving the shabby a longer time, but I want to get it right and more importantly get all my costs accounted for. I'll keep you updated as soon as something happens. Take care and good luck to you to.

Wolfman